The aims of the UCSF-GIVI CFAR are to support a multi-disciplinary environment that promotes basic, clinical, epidemiologic, behavioral, and translational research in the prevention, detection, and treatment of HIV infection and AIDS and to further the programs of NIH institutes by providing unique and effectively managed activities propelling HIV research. CFAR applies effective leadership, open communications, educational opportunities, sound resource management, and strategic planning to link CFAR members across sites and scientific disciplines. The Center's leadership is committed to proactive management, transparency and continued program monitoring, evaluation, and readjustment. CFAR maintains an effective partnership with the UCSF AIDS Research Institute and with the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. To catalyze multidisciplinary research, the Center manages six scientific cores (Clinical and Population Sciences, Immunology, Virology, Specimen Banking, Pharmacology, and International). The Clinical and Population Sciences Core facilitates access to appropriate clinical cohorts. The International Core, focused on a growing portfolio in Uganda, will build in-country capacity and collaborate with the Fogarty International Center in training. Expansion to other African sites is expected. Core Directors are charged with member outreach and soliciting new investigators to take advantage of the cutting edge technologies and assays available within the cores. Success of the scientific cores is assessed by the quality of the multidisciplinary science they stimulate and by the publications and successful grants to which they contribute. The CFAR Administrative Core maintains an electronic network, including videoconferencing, to connect and inform all CFAR members, organizes scientific seminars and symposia, and implements financial systems to monitor and report all CFAR funds, ensuring maximum CFAR effectiveness. The Developmental Core funds pilot an basic science grants. It supports the next generation of HIV science through mentored pilot grants and an extremely successful and ambitious formal mentoring program. The success of the UCSF-GIVI CFAR is evident in the scientific accomplishments of its investigators, its ability to galvanize fundamentally new science through its focus on innovative multidisciplinary HIV research, and the significant institutional support it receives from UCSF, the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the J. David Gladstone Institutes.